Living on next to nought - is that the key?

little_sweetie

How beautiful that is and a lovely start to the day thank you for sharing.

I don't know if anyone has even missed me but I am back now after a lovely few days away with the DD and her family. We spent 4 days with them and then had 2 days alone in our camper to recover! The GC are 6 & 9 and a real delight but very tiring for two oap's :eek:

Our holiday budget went out of the window (the family like to eat out every day) so I spent yesterday evening catching up on posts and meal planning for the weekend to try to get back on track. We will be seeing them twice more over Easter so things won't be back to normal until next Tues at the earliest.

Have a wonderful, hopefully sunny, Easter Greying and dear friends x

ljaneyr

Hi Greying :hello:

I was having a moan about my lack of success when it comes to veggie batch cooking (well, cooking in general actually) and Mouche kindly directed me to your diary. I can already see that I've come to the right place :j

I have subscribed and will catch up on the rest of the diary as and when I get the chance!

Janey x

Greying_Pilgrim

Ay up!! :hello:

Just popping in whilst dinner is finishing off cooking.

Gasp - Fortune - that is awesome! Gosh, you're a talent and no mistake First your red campion and now your orange-tip butterfly Wowsers! Thank you for the link

little_sweetie - course we missed ya But I reckon that lots of folk are on hols or doing different things at the mo, so I don't like to pry - or make you all feel like you've got to check in Although I'm still a little worried about Karma.........

oooooo - what type of camper ya got??? maddiemay mentioned having a campervan too....... forest green in envy of the two of ya :D:D We've a tent....... One day we hope to upgrade..... :rotfl:

YAY for spirited GC :j:j Sending you Vit C, sanatogen tonic wine, Phyllosan and chocolate as I type! :rotfl:

Ay up ljaneyr - WELCOME Ain't Mouche kind? I mean, with all that is going on in her life, she's taken the time to direct you to us

Mmm, we'll have you whipping up Jack's 9p burgers and pressing Buddha bowls on all and sundry just now :rotfl: Whilst I admire someone that doesn't shirk from a challenge, are you sure that you want to read up through 98 pages????? I mean, the gang have made this a very nice place to be - we've a woodstove, squishy sofas, nice biscuits, and our very own juke box and eclectic vinyl collection (I blame Piq's 70's prog rock collection for skewing the balance ), plus we've lovely paintings on the wall - where else do you need to be??? Oh, we do a brilliant line in conversation, banter and leg-pulling too
HOWEVER, if you'd like to let me know that sort of dishes that you may be looking for to cook/batch cook, I may be able to direct you to certain pages to have a look at????

Lovely to *see* you and have you on the thread anyway

Right, well, DP is all scrubbed and lovely and our weekend officially starts HERE :beer: So without further ado, I'm away to dish up dinner.

I may be back later, I may not, as DP had lit the woodstove and it may get sooooo cosy...........

Ta for popping by, reading, commenting, providing us with beautiful things to look at, and being all round good eggs

See y'all later.

Greying

Busymumofthreeplusdog

Funny you should mention 9p burgers... That's what me and DD had for dinner. The boys had meat ones that were lurking at the back of the freezer but next time.........

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Right, I have returned - if only to tell you how much I have botched up dinner! Doh!

So, today was a spendy day. Made all the worse, because I took advantage of having 'a few minutes spare' and wandered into a local discount barn next to the shopping centre. Anyway, long story short - spotted a pair of B3rghaus trainers, in my size and in an acceptable colour, reduced in the sale from £43 to £20. I tried them on, ummmed and ahhed for about 2 seconds flat and snapped 'em up Dear Reader! They look bonny, they were £4.99 cheaper than the next cheapest set of trainers, that were a 'lesser' brandname (not that such things matter, they're all outta the same factory) and my current trainers are nearly at the end of their days. I'm fortunate that I'm not currently 'exposed' to the elements through my soles, which is normally the state of affairs. Plus, on my return to Greying Towers this evening, I discover that I have not actually bought a pair of 'trainers'. Oh no, I have invested in a pair of 'Technical' shoes........ :rotfl::rotfl: Yeh, right......

Dinner this evening was courtesy of the blog that moneyistooshorttomention directed us to. I made bean and sausage Jambalaya..... well, that was my intention. As I was photographing the resultant masterpiece, it dawned on me that I had forgotten one key ingredient. So Dear Reader, I present to you........ sausage jambalaya;



:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

It was very nice and I think it is a keeper of a recipe - although next time I would incorporate the red kidney beans! So Thank You, once again, moneyistooshorttomention for signposting us to the culinary cheapskate blog and to this recipe. I made it with mrT veggie Lincolnshire sausages (I cooked and chopped up 3), but the original version used vegan chorizo - a product I've never used and wouldn't know where to find. It would work just as well with 100% MEAT sausage, if Busymumofthreeplusdog's DS's are heading round to yours for tea Actually, the original recipe is a 'Post Punk Kitchen' recipe - YAY! to Isa and Terri :j If you'd like a go at the recipe, and know that you would remember to use all the ingredients, as stipulated in the recipe....... You can find it HERE

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

affordable trainers manifesting into my life - just as I need them

for time off with DP - and a DIY list as long as both our arms.......

for wildlife photographers and filmmakers - just watched the last episode of the Great British Year (off tape). Absolutely stunning

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and joining in. Sorry I forgot the beans, but I'm glad that the dish worked without them, and I've yet another dish to add to my repertoire. So *win* I think

See y'all later.

Greying

satchmo1

Settled in to our six month "holiday apartment" in Southport after a battle to arrange parking that should have been sorted ahead of today. Then slogged up and down five flights of stairs as lift out of order (fixed within hours which is reassuring). Incredible views, and can see Blackpool tower in the distance.

We have a 7 week hiatus until the purchase of our permanent apartment goes through, and then we'll remodel the kitchen and bathroom before we move in. Doing that work before moving in is better for DHs chest as he has a chronic condition.

Today I am grateful for teamwork and humour. And my favorite song on Smooth Radio "Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (Satchmo). I see friends shaking hands saying "how do you do", they're really saying "I love you".

Goodnight friends in the box.

Busymumofthreeplusdog

Oh Greying I think my DSs would like that, might even get away with veggie sausages then DD can eat it too.....bonus!!

little_sweetie

Greying, botched it may be in your view but 'yatea' tonight looks yummy

little_sweetie - course we missed ya
oooooo - what type of camper ya got??? maddiemay mentioned having a campervan too....... forest green in envy of
the two of ya :D:D We've a tent....... One day we hope to upgrade..... :rotfl:
YAY for spirited GC :j:j Sending you Vit C, sanatogen tonic wine, Phyllosan and chocolate as I type! :rotfl:

Believe me we need everything you are sending in that parcel, Greying :rotfl::rotfl:I ached in places it shouldn't be possible to ache!

Our motorhome aka Douglas is just a 2 berth Elddis but we love him. Having sold the house & moved to t'country we spent our released cash on buying him. It was more DH's dream than mine but I 'allowed' him his dream buy. To me it's like having a grown up wendy house. There is a cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer, and a bathroom (essential for night time sorties to the little girls' room. I simply refuse to leave a nice warm van in the middle of the night.... especially in the pouring rain )

Great buy with the trainers BTW, a bargain indeed.

satchmo, good luck with the project. It sounds lovely...

Night night everyone x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

oooh, Satchmo - All exciting on the move front - that seems to have advanced very quickly in the end? Have you had your first cuppa yet? I do hope so, after all your hard work. And you do realise that I have the 'Wonderful World' earworm now??? :D Ha ha, t'will probably keep me sane today, which is no bad thing Wishing you all happiness in your new temporary abode, and hoping that it sets you up for enduring joy in your permanent apartment

Busymumofthreeeplusdog - I tend to make the components of the dish (like jambalaya, hoppin john or biriyani) separately and then bring them together, so veggie sausages work just as well as meat sausages. It is a nice dish, relatively simple and reasonably cheap - although if your children don't like green peppers, then substitute or leave them out. I like green cooked, but not raw.

little_sweetie - :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: to *grown up wendy house* Sounds fabby. Everything you need and somewhere comfortable to sit! Brill! Urg - remembering *night visits* from the tent - half a ton of dew down your neck the minute you *touch* the tent 'door' :rotfl::rotfl:


Well, at least we have sunshine this morning. I've stripped the bed and thrown open the window to let some freshness percolate around the place.

DP is already being a nuisance. I've drawn up a priority list of things to do. So he just announced that he was going to do a chore from the bottom half of the list, one of those jobs that eats time, he'd be doing it all weekend and we would have absolutely nothing to show for it by Monday evening grrr! :rotfl: So we've just had a tutorial on how to start from the top of a prioritised list, with chore #1.................... :rotfl:

Today can only get better, today can only get better :rotfl::rotfl:

Aw, only having a comedy mini-gripe and groan really - DP has just brought me a coffee and announced he's off to do part of the second chore on the list ....... (need to locate some specific paint out the cupboard first....:D) So if I type super quick, I can be out to *supervise* before any more distractions are encountered :rotfl:

Dinner this evening will hopefully be pizza and hm wedges. I must also remember to get the Hot Cross Buns out of the freezer to de-frost for lunch-time - or *elevenses* if things get too trying :rotfl::rotfl:

Right, I'd better get a wiggle on and find my *foreman* hat :rotfl: Only kidding - team Greying is just that, a team

Thanks for popping in, reading and contributing. Wonderful to catch up with you

See y'all later.

Greying

brizzledfw

Aaw GP your last post really makes me smile..I am just the same..although we are a team, OH's inability to prioritise the chores to get speedy results drives me mad!! As I am in charge of strategy and he does implementation I do like to control the order chores are started and finished too :rotfl: You gotta laugh hey ( with a dollop of self awareness thrown in!)


Satchmo...that's SO exciting...and I too love that song. It makes my heart sing

Also a huge fan of campers...out in ours in glorious Powys this weekend . OH has pootled off to a bird hide, I am cruising on here and DDs are reading. It's truly awesome

Have a fab weekend GP and her readers x